It was July 2005, and I had just arrived in Forni Avoltri for the Festa dei Frutti di Bosco. As I was wandering through the town getting my bearings, I encountered a friendly local who was busy tending the garden outside her home. During our brief chat, she mentioned that there was to be a presentation on the cooking of Carnia at the Municipio that very evening. Moments later, at the bus stop, I saw a flyer announcing the event. It was a book signing for Cucina della Carnia by Melie Artico, a book I had coincidentally just purchased the previous week.
After spending the afternoon exploring the nearby town of Prato Carnico, I returned to Forni Avoltri for dinner at Ristorante Al Sole. When I arrived, owner Tiziana Romanin immediately introduced me to Giacomo del Fabbro, president of the town’s Centro Culturale and host of the evening’s book-signing event. He sat at my table for a few minutes before I ordered, as amused as everyone else seemed to be that an American was visiting their out-of-the-way village and especially pleased that I was writing a book about Friulian cuisine.
I finished dinner with just enough time to make it back across the river to the Municipio for the event. When I got there, the room was already crowded with dozens of people seated in rows of folding chairs, but Signor del Fabbro spotted me and led me to an empty reserved seat in front. During his opening speech, he introduced me as “a special guest from America.” The author was there, of course, along with a panel of scholars, but rather than focusing on the region’s cuisine, the discussion centered around the efforts of translating her cookbook into the Furlan language.
The book is a compilation of nearly 200 recipes, provided by various cooks throughout Carnia. The layout consists of two columns throughout, with each page containing both the Italian and Furlan translations of each recipe. The recipes are written in paragraph form, with the ingredients listed within the instructions and many not providing specific measurements. In general, I find this style less conducive to following a recipe. However, this is not unusual for an Italian cookbook, and in this case it perhaps makes sense, given that the book’s primary purpose is to serve as an archive of local recipes for posterity.
I did find the format of the book to be a bit random, as it is organized not by category (e.g. pasta, meat, vegetables) or course (e.g. antipasti, primi), as cookbooks typically are, but by each recipe’s author. The index follows the same structure. I think it would have been more useful if the index had been organized alphabetically rather than chronologically by page number. As it is, searching for a particular dish can be rather time-consuming. Despite these criticisms, I have referred to Cucina della Carnia for certain recipes, including the pork stew called toç de purcìt and the half dozen versions of cjarsòns.
